Category Archives: Icons

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I recently watched Coco before Chanel (again) and realized that Chanel makes smoking look desirable. Seriously I think she made it appear chic…effortless…elegant.

This was of course recreated again and again throughout the movie by Andrey Tatou

Bad habits (in my opinion) aside Chanel was a dynamic woman way ahead of her time. Or perhaps simply out of time with the world in which she lived.

Inspired I drew a sketch. I wanted to practice illustrating leather especially after discovering these studded Chanel Boots. So here is my Coco along with the words of the one and only…..

“A woman has the age she deserves.”

“There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time!”

“Elegance does not consist in putting on a new dress. Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence, but of those who have already taken possession of their future. Elegance is refusal.”

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening. Fashion fades, only style remains the same. Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress.”

“Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity. Luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury.”

During this upcoming week I am planning on dedicating my posts to men. I tried to decide who my Icon feature should be. Ghandi came to mind first followed by great actors, designers, innovators. But in the end there could be only one. Who better then Theodar Seuss Geisel? And what better time then following his birthday March 2?

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”

“You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.”

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.”

“It is better to know how to learn than to know.”

“Step with great care and tact. And remember that life’s a great balancing act.”

The funny thing about Icons is often the humanness of how they live their lives. As flawed, hurt and real as the rest of us. Whitney Houston was certainly no exception. An iconic voice raised her to fame. Her demons fought to bring her down.

Whitney once said that when she heard Aretha Franklin sing she could feel her emotional delivery so clearly. She said it came from deep within. That is what Whitney knew she wanted to do. I would say this is indeed what she did.

But what I admired most about her was the candid honesty in her 2002 interview with Diane Sawyer. Whitney told Diane that her biggest devil was herself saying it’s “My decision, my heart, what I want and what I don’t want. No one makes me do what I don’t want. It’s my decision. So the biggest devil is me. I am either my best friend or my worst enemy. “

“My mother taught me that when you stand in the truth and someone tells a lie about you, don’t fight it.”

“Growing around [great musicians], you just can’t help it. I identified with it immediately. It was something that was so natural to me that when I started singing, it was almost like speaking.”

“God gave me a voice to sing with, and when you have that, what other gimmick is there?”

I couldn’t help but start the year off with the incomparable Julia Childs.

“Upon reflection, I decided I had three main weaknesses: I was confused (evidenced by a lack of facts, an inability to coordinate my thoughts, and an inability to verbalize my ideas); I had a lack of confidence, which caused me to back down from forcefully stated positions; and I was overly emotional at the expense of careful, ‘scientific’ though. I was thirty-seven years old and still discovering who I was.”

“Being tall is an advantage, especially in business. People will always remember you. And if you’re in a crowd, you’ll always have some clean air to breathe.”

“You’ll never know everything about anything, especially something you love.”